Ongoing probes against Rui Chenggang, a former anchor for China Central Television (CCTV), China’s state-owned broadcaster, continue to net related suspects in a wide sweep; the latest to fall, a public relationships professional reportedly implicated in connection with Rui, was just announced on Nov. 17. The July fall of the nationalist but cosmopolitan Rui — and the ascent of a new and much more cloistered standard-bearer for Chinese patriotism, Zhou Xiaoping — points to a deep divide in Chinese society between those who reflexively dislike the United States, and those who support it and the democratic aspirations they believe it espouses. In both cases, how these groups view the United States acts as a Rorschach test for how they feel about their own country.
It has been quite a comedown for Rui, whose unique success story as a young, bilingual, and patriotic media icon with self-proclaimed ties to world leaders — including former U.S. President Bill Clinton whom Rui perhaps self-servingly called “a very good friend” — drew enormous fanfare. (Rui, 37, was allegedly a shareholder of a PR company that represented the channel where he was employed, and his past shareholdings allegedly violate regulations at the state broadcaster.) After Rui fell into disgrace over the summer, People’s Daily, the party’s mouthpiece, published a short online commentary that asserted, “Rui is not a spokesman for patriotism. The only bases for his crime and punishment should be evidence and laws; it has nothing to do with patriotism.” Instead, the current face of Chinese patriotism is another young man, Zhou, a 33-year-old blogger who rose into public consciousness on Oct. 15, when President Xi Jinping personally endorsed Zhou for spreading “positive energy online” at a high-profile conference in Beijing. Zhou’s work focuses on rationalizing the party and its achievements, but the United States is a recurring theme. For example, Zhou defends corruption in China by saying that the situation in the United States is no better. He is also the author of popular web essays “Nine Knockout Blows in America’s Cold War against China” and “Broken Dreams in the USA.” The titles say it all.
Rui and Zhou are, in short, an apple and an orange. The former is a seasoned, bilingual professional with relatively sophisticated knowledge of the world, while the latter is an inarticulate blogger who has never actually left the country. Their contrasting stance toward the United States speaks volumes about the urban Chinese to whom they appeal, and the transformed political and economic environments in which they reside.
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